Arctic Council talks climate, COP21, suicide in North

Anchorage, Alaska hosted the he first SAO meeting during the US 2015-2017 Chairmanship, 20-22 October. (Linnea Nordström/Arctic Council Secretariat )

An Arctic Council meeting wound up in Alaska on Friday with a focus on issues like climate adaptation, the marine environment and the suicide epidemic in the Arctic.

“The Arctic Council is rising to the challenge of meeting significantly greater expectations,” said David Balton, chair of the Senior Arctic Officials and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries, in a statement on Friday.

“With attention on the Arctic region at an all-time high, this meeting demonstrated the ability of the Arctic Council to bring together Arctic States, Arctic Indigenous representatives and a large number of Observers to work toward a safer, healthier and sustainable Arctic.”

The forum has also planned for visibility in Paris throughout the conference.

“It was also decided, on a proposal by Iceland, that the Arctic Council should have some presence at COP 21,” Balton said. “There will be Arctic Council representatives and materials there to talk about the work of the Arctic Council particularly related to climate change.”

Arctic communities

Besides environment, the council also talked about the mental health challenges facing the North’s remote, predominantly indigenous, communities.

“The problem is accute,” Balton said. “There’s a lot more work being done.”

A project by the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group focuses on youth engagement and community work that could help prevent suicide before it happens, he said.

Canadian chairmanship

This week’s SAO meeting was the first since the United States took over the Arctic Council’s roating two-year chairmanship from Canada in May 2015.

The main pillar of Canada’s chairmanship was ‘development of the North, for the people of the North’ and establishing an Arctic Economic Council that would give input to the Arctic Council on economic issues.

In the news conference on Friday, Balton said that though the U.S. Council chairmanship would continue with Canadian initiatives like the Arctic Economic Council, it would be broadening its focus in several areas.

“The Canadians focused their chairmanship around the theme of development for people of the North, and I can understand in Canada why it was a good topic for them,” Balton said.

“They made some very significant progress and we did want to continue that progress, but there are other things we wanted to focus on too, particularly climate change and Arctic Ocean issues. There’s nothing inconsistent between what the Canadians and we are doing but we may have a little larger lens.”

SAO meetings

The meetings of the Arctic Council’s Senior Arctic Officials are among the most important of the forum’s meetings.

Representatives from the Arctic Council’s eight member nations and six indigenous organizations gather to discuss the councils’ work on science and environment.

The Council also has almost three dozen approved Observers which include non-Arctic states, NGOs and intergovernmental organizations like the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

Observers are invited to watch the work of the Arctic Council and are invited to participate in the forum’s working groups.

During this week’s meeting, observers were given a half-day at the table with Arctic Council members to give their perspectives on the council’s work and how Observers could better contribute to the forum’s projects in areas like black carbon reduction and bird migration.

“I believe it’s never been attempted in the history of the Arctic Council,” Balton said. “A lot of (the Observers) have been wanting to have greater engagement and greater input.”

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

Eilís Quinn is a journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic news cooperation project.

Eilís has reported from the Arctic regions of all eight circumpolar countries and has produced numerous documentary and multimedia series about climate change and the issues facing Indigenous peoples in the North.

Her investigative report "Death in the Arctic: A community grieves, a father fights for change," about the violent death of Robert Adams, a 19-year-old Inuk man from Arctic Quebec, received an honourable mention for excellence in reporting on violence and trauma at the 2019 Dart Awards in New York City.

Her multimedia project on the health challenges in the Canadian Arctic, "Bridging the Divide," was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards.

Eilís has worked for media organizations in Canada and the United States and as a TV host for the Discovery/BBC Worldwide series "Best in China."